Want to save on domestic flights? Fly via international

 Domestic flights within India are getting very expensive. It is lot cheaper to fly via international hub for domestic destinations

Example one: Guwahati to Calicut:

Domestic flight by indigo via BLR is 11000 INR, 12 hours flying time

If you book 2 international tickets, it costs less

• Guwahati to Kuala Lumpur: 4100 INR
• Kuala Lumpur to Calicut: 3500 INR
• Total: Just 7600 INR

Check screenshots below

Malaysia is visa free for Indians as of now.

It is unfortunate Govt of India doesn't allow flying domestic destinations via international hub. So we've to book two separate tickets, clear immigration etc. Many other countries do not have such restrictions. In Taiwan you can fly from Kaohsiung to Taipei via Hong Kong or Manila or some other international destination.

More such examples will be available if you dig deeper.

Cheap ticket to Baku but with extra visa cost

Tickets to Baku from India cost around 35000 onwards. Indigo flies to Baku via Delhi. Delhi Baku return ticket costs around 30-32k onwards. If we're booking one stop from other Indian cities- say Mangaluru or Mumbai or Kolkata that is another 10-12k taking total cost to 42-45k INR onwards.

Air Azarbaijan flies direct to Baku from Mumbai and costs around 35000 INR onwards for a return ticket. https://azal.az/en/

As I was scouting for a better option, I suddenly came across this on Skyscanner. 24k for a return ticket to Baku felt relatively cheap compared to other options.

However, I tried to check the price on Air Arabia website and it was coming to 50k INR. So when I tried to understand how is it half price I figured out the following

This cheap ticket is made up by Makemytrip by combining Individual tickets.

If we book 4 tickets individually, they cost a lot less.

• Kochi-Abu Dabhi costs 5500 INR one way
• AUH-Baku costs 6500 INR one way
• Baku-AUH is 5800 INR one way
• AUH to COK 6400 INR one way

So MMT is booking 4 separate tickets and offering me a round trip to Baku at about 24000 INR

Very clever of Make My trip and it is very unfortunate that Air Arabia is not offering it directly under one PNR for this price.

While it may appear tempting to book above ticket for 24000 INR, UAE Visa cost will come to haunt you.

A single entry UAT visa costs 7500 INR, one month multiple entry visa costs 14000 INR

For above tickets we will have to clear immigration at AUH twice, so cost of 2 visas or 1 month multiple entry visa will take the total expense to close to 38-40k making it at par with Indigo or Air Azerbaijan options mentioned earlier in the post, minus any visa hassle for transit airport.

UAE allows transit visa for a cheaper price of 50 AED but I don't think that applies if we have tickets in two separate PNRs. Air Arabia won't let you board in Kochi if you don't have a valid visa to enter UAE.

However if you have UAE golden visa, residency, work permit or can get VOA due to US Visa etc then this option will work for you.

Proceed with caution.

Air Asia Calicut to Kuala Lumpur under 8k return

Spotted a sweet deal on Air Asia. You can fly from Calicut in Kerala to Kuala Lumpur and come back in under 8000 INR, which is a good deal, cheaper than flying to Delhi.

Available for few select date combinations in October, November and other months.

Calicut (Kozhikode)-Bali is available for 20k return, which is also decent. You can try other one stop destinations as well.

If you are in Kerala or Mangaluru or nearby it is good opportunity to make use of this offer. You can take a train to Calicut and board from there.

If Kochi is closer to you, try that as well, costs about 3k INR more though.

Air Asia flies from Guwahati: 8k return to KUL

Air Asia has started offering flights from Guwahati. Indians from north east now have an easy way out to international destinations in South Asia and don't have to fly to Kolkata for everything.

Air Asia's pricing seems to be fair. Guwahati-Kuala Lumpur return ticket can be had for under 8000 INR, which is a good deal. A flight to Kolkata or Delhi would cost more.

This is same price as Kochi or even a bit cheaper.

Other destinations such as Bali or Australia etc are also available for fair price. Check for your destination and dates.

Thanks https://webguy.in/ for the tip off.

Alliance Air website has a repetitive bug!

Alliance Air website seem to have an intermittent bug. The website goes blank when we try to select an origin or destination. We can't select anything and can't book tickets. However this seem to get resolved later in the day- when I checked in second half website was working fine, but only to return to same issue next morning.

I am not sure what is the issue. Let us see how long before this gets fixed.

Official website: https://allianceair.in/book You can check it for yourself.

DreamScape in Changi T2

When I was transiting through Changi this month, I asked an information counter guy what is new at Changi in past 6 months (I had last passed through Changi in October 2023)- he asked me to check out Dream Scape.

Dream Scape is a small garden area with a digital roof which plays animation of fishes moving around or other attractions. There are 18 plants on the ground surrounding the area and passengers can walk in between, looking up at the sky and looking below with fishes moving around. The visuals are accompanied by a curated sound of over 100 creatures. Changi calls it "immersive indoor garden experience"

Dreamscape is located towards the end of T2. You can reach T2 for free using inter terminal trains in Changi Airport from T1 or T3

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A post shared by Shrinidhi Hande (@enidhi)

There are few more attractions but they are all outside transit area, need to clear immigration.

Taipei Taoyuan (TPE) Airport Experience

This post shares my observations at Taipei's main airport, Taoyuan, TPE.

#1 Outdoor observation deck:

Taoyuan airport in Taipei has an outdoor deck for passengers to visit and see the runway up-close. This is before clearing immigration, so accessible to all.

#2 Lots of passenger rest area. 

Usually airports want arriving passengers to leave the airport asap and departing passengers to do check in and enter gate area. But TPE airport has dedicated area accessible to all- arriving passengers, departing passengers who haven't checked in yet. This area has sitting benches, food courts, kids play area etc. Very convenient if you arrive early at airport or not in a hurry to leave the airport.

#3 Mobile data- same price in city and airport

Usually airport shops sell slightly expensive packages to tourists or claim cheapest option is not available right now, forcing arriving passengers to shell more money. Because of this I usually try to skip buying in airport and look for a shop inside city. However I find that price in Taipei's Taoyuan airport is same as city shops w.r.t mobile sim card options.

Even the price of Banana in 7Eleven store in TPE airport is at par with city stores.

#4 One hour away from city by train

TPE airport is pretty far from Taipei. Train to Taipei Main station takes 1 hour and costs 150 TWD (400 INR approx). Taipei has another airport in city but looks like it is not used by international airlines.

#5 No domestic/international segregation

This warrants a separate post. Taiwan is a small country, just some 400 kms from north to south. Though Taiwan has several airports, doesn't look like there is a domestic airline flying to these cities- most options are via an international hub only. This is largely because Taiwan has excellent high speed rail network that can cover 400 kms in 2-2.5 hours end to end- making it useless going to airports away from city, spend 2 hours in airport formalities, 1 hour flying and more time reaching city.

#6 Lego scale model of TPE airport

An emirates A380 at TPE airport

Similar: Almaty airport observations  * Kuwait airport short transit time *